THIS IS IT!

... Nellie's first new song in over 10 years! It took me months to collect all the tools I'd need to continue the project I started all these years ago. And then it took months for me to learn them. I still am learning them. But here's one new song added to the project "Backstage Musical" which I began in 2004 when I wrote and orchestrated "If I Never See You Again."

 I certainly hope you enjoy this. It's a pretty silly song, but that's the point. I did everything I could to reproduce the late-30s Movietone Musical sound, and the band is styled after the pit orchestras that played for Fred Astaire and Dick Powell.

I still have a lot to learn, and the horns aren't really good yet, but here's a first draft so you can see where I'm going with this. This isn't raw MIDI like I used to do; it's all hand-tweaked just like the voices.

But the idea is still the same: Use the most modern digital equipment to synthesize the very organic music of days gone by. There's both irony and great fun in this.

THE STORY: (Stop me if you'v heard this one!) Nellie is starting out in show business, and Danny, a 3rd-rate song and dance man and would-be producer (but really a wealthy scion) has spotted her singing and (sort of) dancing in a little cabaret in the middle of Nowhere, NJ ("Sign Up for Love"), and decides she would be a great discovery. And perhaps more. Lots of music ensues. I hope.

You have no rights to post comments